


Stitches

by butimalsonothappy



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Amber is just mentioned, Andi Mack has the finale tomorrow and I'm not ready at all so I wrote this, Andi is just mentioned, Angst to Fluff, Getting Together, Homophobia, In celebration of Andi Mack being super groundbreaking, Jonah is just mentioned, Kippen Siblings, Kira is mentioned, M/M, Panic Attack, enjoy, idk how to tag so, tw: panic attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 20:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19980118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butimalsonothappy/pseuds/butimalsonothappy
Summary: "TJ had betrayed him, that much he knew. He also knew that it definitely shouldn’t hurt as much as it had. But that wasn’t even what hurt the most. Their friendship had their ups and downs, sure, but this was so much more heartbreaking. He had trusted TJ, that’s the problem. Maybe Buffy was right, maybe all TJ was is “Toxic TJ Kippen”. He’d thought TJ had changed but apparently not. He had trusted TJ to at least apologize before acting like they were best friends again, but no, TJ had other plans. He had decided he was going to betray his best friend for a girl he just met, not apologize, and then they’d magically be best friends still."Or, TJ comes to Cyrus' house and they talk things out.





	Stitches

‘ _ I thought that I’ve been hurt before, but no one’s ever left me quite this sore’ _

Cyrus thought about all the times that TJ had caused his own friendships to dwindle. He almost lost Buffy because of TJ. And now he had been abandoned for seemingly no reason.

TJ had betrayed him, that much he knew. He also knew that it definitely knew that it definitely shouldn’t hurt as much as it had. But that wasn’t even what hurt the most. Their friendship had their ups and downs, sure, but this was so much more heartbreaking. He had trusted TJ, that’s the problem. Maybe Buffy was right, maybe all TJ was is “Toxic TJ Kippen”. He’d thought TJ had changed but apparently not. He had trusted TJ to at least apologize before acting like they were best friends again, but no, TJ had other plans. He had decided he was going to betray his best friend for a girl he just met, not apologize, and then they’d magically be best friends still.  


Before Cyrus could figure out what was happening, he was crying into his pillow. _I’m so pathetic, I’m crying like a baby at three in the morning._ That only worsened the crying, he couldn’t breathe at this point. _That’s the problem, I can’t get over him like I did with Jonah. He’s special._

He couldn’t finish thinking because a pebble was thrown at his window. There was only one person who did that.

TJ.

He couldn’t let TJ see him like this, so he wiped his red eyes and walked over to the window, slid it open and saw exactly what he had expected to see. TJ. He was wearing a blue hoodie and grey sweatpants. If Cyrus’ eyes weren’t blurry from the unshed tears glossing his eyes he would’ve swooned at the sight.

“What do you want, TJ?” He could hear the raspiness, yet still wobbly with more tears, of his voice. He could see TJ’s face clearly in the moonlight. He looked guilty, nervous, sad, and...scared?

“Let me in, Underdog. We need to talk. Please.” TJ said with the nerves and guilt obvious in his voice.

Deciding it was probably better for him and his anxiety to talk to TJ, he just nodded to TJ and went downstairs to open the front door for the boy. With his parents out of town he had the house to himself. He led the other boy up to his bedroom after shutting and locking the front door.

“What, Teej?” Cyrus asked the other boy as they sat on opposite sides of the younger boy’s bed. He could already hear the tears in his voice and hoped TJ didn’t for the sake of not being vulnerable in front of him. He had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from being vulnerable, probably just the sight of his red rimmed eyes and inability to keep from shaking was already enough to make TJ confused about his mental stability.

“Cyrus, I messed up. I shouldn’t have bailed on you like that but I-” TJ stopped to take a shaky unsure breath and continue quietly, “I was scared.”

Cyrus felt his heart break for the other boy. But he had one thought, what did TJ have to be scared about? “Why, Teej? Why’d you do it? I was humiliated. And you didn’t even care to apologize before acting like you were my best friend again? Why?” Cyrus’ voice was light but held the exact sadness and jealousy he had been trying to hide from TJ. The tears threatened to fall with another word or motion.

“I was scared, Underdog-” Cyrus flinched at the nickname and lost it.

He was a hiccuping, crying mess as he tried to get out the words, “Of what, TJ? You’re the captain of the basketball team. What do you have to be scared of?” Cyrus’ voice faltered on the last part. He couldn’t look TJ in the eyes as he said it.

“Cyrus. Look here.” Cyrus couldn’t. He just shook his head and hiccuped, finally done crying. “Cyrus.” 

There was something about the tone of TJ’s voice that always made Cyrus give in to the basketball player. He lifted his head to be met with the stunning green eyes that caught his heart on day one no matter how hard he tried to undo his desire for the other boy. His eyes filled with tears again but he pushed them back, he was _not_ going to cry in front of TJ again, he can’t be vulnerable for him.

“Cyrus. Something happened with Kira. I never wanted to do the costume with her. It was a stupid costume she came up with for me and her to do because she knows.” TJ said with the light voice he only ever used when he was nervous or about to break.

“Knows what?” Cyrus said quizzically, sniffing, “TJ, if you’re ok with telling me than please tell me. If it hurt you than you’re clearly not ok with this situation.” Cyrus continued when he saw TJ’s breathing increase a little bit and his hand start to shake against his leg where he had it.

“It’s just-” he was cut off with his own breathing increasing even more. His eyes started to water and the room started to spin.

He could hear Cyrus trying to talk to him but he couldn’t make out the words. He couldn’t hear much over the sound of his rapid breathing. He felt his heart beating faster than normal. “Cyrus.” was all he could get out while not being able to breathe right.

“TJ, breathe. It’s going to be ok, you will make it through this. This will end.” He could only hear that sentence before he got hit with a wave of dizziness that sent him to tears and grabbing and clutching out into air for something that wasn’t there. Next thing he knew he was grabbing water from Cyrus’ hand and trying to take a drink from it without spilling it everywhere from the shaking.

When he had control over his hands again and his breathing had calmed back down, he just sat on the edge of Cyrus’ bed crying into his hands with his legs tucked up to his chest. He couldn’t believe it, he had just made such a fool of himself.

“TJ? Do you want to talk about it?” Cyrus tried to calm TJ down by patting on his back until he stopped crying so harshly and the cries were reduced to whimpers.

“Talk about what? How I’m that much of a baby that I just had a breakdown in front of you? Yeah, not really.” TJ responded wiping his eyes and looking at Cyrus. If you looked close enough you could see the mix of fear and pain in the basketball player’s eyes, but Cyrus wasn’t going to question that right now. 

“Teej, it’s okay, it’s just me. You don’t have to act brave for me, did you not just see me a couple minutes ago? If I can trust you to not go telling everyone how much of a baby _I_ am, you should trust me, too.” Cyrus tried to comfort the other boy to no result.

“That’s the problem, Cyrus! Everyone sees me as the stupid basketball captain that hates everyone, not the dork that goes home and cries into their pillow every night, skips dinner, and then doesn’t fall asleep until three a.m. because they’re over anxious about something that doesn’t matter.” TJ lost it and said everything that he did, not caring if Cyrus now knew just how broken and insecure he really was when they weren’t at school.

“Oh.” was all Cyrus could get out at first, he couldn’t believe his friend, basketball captain toughie, could ever be insecure, “Well if it helps at all, I do that kind of often, too. But there’s more to it for me, but this is about you not me. Want to talk about why you’re over anxious about whatever it is that you are?” he said desperately wanting to help his best friend.

“I definitely do need to talk about it but the thing is that the only person that knows is my sister. You have to know her at this point because of Andi and Jonah.” TJ stops to roll his eyes, “So it might be kind of hard for me to say it flat out unless I want to have another one of whatever that was.”

“Teej, only talk if you want to, I don’t want to see you hurt but I also don’t want you to tell me something that you aren’t ready to. And does that mean Amber is your sister?” Cyrus ended surprised with his eyes wide.

“I do, trust me on that one. And yes she is, but I’m the better Kippen so she can tell you whatever she wants to.” TJ said sounding very sure of himself in the first part and sounded like he was trying to contain laughter on the last part.

“Well then, talk when you’re ready. And don’t worry I’m planning to tell Amber tomorrow when I go to The Spoon with Andi, Buffy, and maybe Jonah if he’s coming.” Cyrus talked like TJ, serious at the beginning and trying yet failing to contain laughter.

“Wouldn’t expect anything else, Underdog.” TJ paused, he needed to collect his thoughts before talking about _that,_ “So the other thing is that-” he stopped again, _This is going to be a lot harder than I thought,_ “Cyrus, I’m-” no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get it out, “Do you have paper or something? Maybe if I write it it’ll be easier to do?” TJ finally decided on.

“Sure, Teej. Whatever you need.” Cyrus walked over to his little bookshelf in the corner of the room to grab some paper for his friend. The bookshelf had been in his room since he moved in. It was full of dinosaur statues, books, documentaries, and some English awards from recently.

He slipped some paper out from under a couple documentaries and walked over to hand it to the blonde, “Here. Do you need a pencil or something to write? Of course you do, duh me.” he ended talking to himself.

TJ couldn’t help but stifle laughter at the last part of his best friend’s sentence. He now knows exactly why he fell for the muffin-loving dork he calls his best friend, he was insanely adorable. From his laugh to talking to himself randomly.

“There you go.” Cyrus handed a pen with little dinosaurs all over it.

“This pen is so you, Underdog.” TJ laughed as took the pen and paper to get ready to write the truth.

“Hey, don’t tease me!” Cyrus laughed as he playfully pushed TJ’s shoulder. 

“I’m not, Underdog! I love it! What was that for?”

“I thought you were making fun of me for my ever-dying love of dinosaurs! Iris wouldn’t have done that, maybe I’ll text her later.” Cyrus explained through laughter, but actually got to thinking on the last part, maybe he might text Amber and ask for Iris’ number again later.

“Of course I wasn’t! And who’s Iris?” TJ asked sounding slightly confused as he tried as hard as he could to write _that three letter word_.

“She’s- nevermind that’s a story for another time, maybe tomorrow.” Cyrus decided before continuing, “You have something you’re trying to tell me so I don’t want to take the moment if you’re already having a hard time telling me.”

TJ finished writing the word, the word he couldn’t say to himself unless it was written out on paper, the word that was the truth that he was scared to admit to his best friend even though he knew their friendship wouldn’t change. He finished and flipped the paper over hiding the truth from his best friend.

“Teej? Are you ready yet?” Cyrus asked the boy impatiently. He was beginning to think TJ had second thoughts on telling him whatever it was that he needed to tell him.

“Um, as ready as I’ll ever be I guess.” TJ answered unsure of himself to say the least. His plan was to hold the paper up in front of his face after his speech of how much he didn’t want their friendship to change because of him.

“Teej, remember, don’t tell me if you don’t want to.”

“Ok, so, I hope this doesn’t change anything in our friendship because you’re a great person and I don’t know what I would do without you because you help me a lot with everything and you’re probably the best friend any guy could ask for. I hope you’ll still be my friend after this because if you’re not then I won’t really have a best friend and I really don’t want to go back to Reed and Lester because they’re awful for how they treated you and me. I’m rambling, aren’t I? Ok, well, point of this ramble is that I’m-” and he held up the paper where the truth was written. He could feel his eyes wet with tears that he were begging weren’t going to fall. He could feel himself shaking and hoped Cyrus couldn’t tell.

“Aw, Teej, it’s ok! There’s nothing wrong with you and of course I’m still your friend! Why wouldn’t I be?” Cyrus comforted the other boy by rubbing circles into his back.

“I thought you were going to hate me and then not be my friend anymore because I was weird.” TJ couldn’t help but love the feeling of Cyrus comforting him. He shifted under the boy’s touch causing Cyrus to move his hand off his back.

“Teej, I could never hate you and you know that. The only thing that could make me hate you would be if you killed someone or something like that. Plus, I can’t really be homophobic even if I tried.”

“How do you know I haven’t killed someone? And what do you mean ‘I can’t really be homophobic even if I tried’?” TJ was kind of confused as to what Cyrus was saying but he didn’t want to read too far into it.

“I mean-” Cyrus took a deep breath before continuing knowing that TJ can’t really hate him now, “I’m gay, too.” he looked away from TJ just in case.

Instead of anything bad happening, that wasn’t expected anyway, he felt a hand on his in comfort. TJ’s hand. Without his brain getting a say in things, his heart started beating faster and he could feel a blush creeping onto his face and hoped that if he turned around at all that TJ wouldn’t see it.

“Cyrus? There’s something else that you should know.” TJ started, he wanted to tell him that he liked someone, and then if he had the courage, he would say who it was.

“Yeah?” Cyrus looked back over to the other boy as the basketball player took his hand off of his hand. He’s not going to lie, he already misses the presence of the hand.

“Yeah. I’ve been meaning to tell you for awhile but as I said earlier, I was kind of scared. But you deserve to know because I’m tired of lying to you. You deserve better so here goes nothing.” TJ stopped for a breath because that seems to be something that he does a lot, “So, I like someone.”

“Oh my gosh! Who is it? If you want to tell me anyway, I’m not forcing you to tell me but I definitely do really want to know!” Cyrus was over-excited at this point and knew it. He really needed to stop getting his hopes up, he knew it would never be him.

“Ok so, I’ll give you hints and you have to take guesses. Does that work? No, I need to just say it otherwise I never will. So here goes nothing.” He inhaled and exhaled heavily.

“Teej. Tell me when you’re ready. Take your time with it.”

The blonde somehow always found comfort in the brunette assuring him or anything. Those simple few words gave him the confidence to continue, “Ok. So, um, their name is, uh, their name starts with a-” he took a shaky breath, unsure of whether he could continue or not. He knew he could when he felt the brunette’s hand on his in reassurance, “It’s you.” he said as he started to move towards the door, ready to leave the room in case he got rejected, which he was completely ready to.

He was stopped however when he felt the brunette’s hand grab and latch into his. He turned to see Cyrus standing quite literally about an inch from his face.

“Teej,” Cyrus started with a low voice, “I have always liked you, too. And yes, I do mean in the gayest way.” Cyrus ended with a breathy laugh as he stared into the green eyes that swept him off his feet. 

“I like you in the gayest way, too. And I’m also going to start calling you Muffin now so beware.” TJ laughed and walked him and Cyrus back over to his bed.

“Whatever, Teej.” Cyrus tried to play off the eye-roll that followed his comment was real.

They immediately got cuddled up in Cyrus’ bed after TJ texted his mom and told her that he had needed to talk to Cyrus. His mom being the mom that she is would totally understand. After all, Amber does that with Andi all the time.

“Teej?”

“Yeah, Muffin?” TJ slurred as he drifted into sleep while still listening.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too, Muffin.”

“Is that nickname really going to stick?” Cyrus yawned halfway through the sentence, clearly trying to stay awake for TJ.

“You know it, Muffin. Now let’s get some sleep.” TJ grabbed Cyrus into a gigantic hug as they lay in the bed. 

“Goodnight, Teej.”

“Goodnight, Muffin.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos welcome! I respond to all comments! Also I'm not ready for this show to end because I've been here since day one and now I'm sad! Anyway, TYRUS IS GETTING TOGETHER FOR REAL TOMORROW IN THE FINALE!


End file.
